lesson with Jr. it was a good day. first day out for me since july '06 in jersey so needless to say it took me a few to get going. freights is a beautiful place though. junior pushed me into most of these waves. didn't really work them much.

After a few visits to Playa Norte, I decided to walk over to La Isla to check it out. Had lunch at one of the places in front of the beach and sat upstairs to check out the waves. There were a lot of children catching the small shore break with bodyboards.

Out about 40m from there was a nice right that breaks away from a bunch of rocks near the boardwalk area. There were a good deal of surfers in this area and some of them were able to catch the wave all the way to the beach, a nice ride. The only problem was that they had to dodge about 50 bodyboard/surfers in the way, and then at the beach there were tons of kids. I saw multiple collisions and many more near collisions. Lots of kids with very sharp pointed boards who didn't care who was in front of them. One Brazillian surfer returned to the hotel with a decent hole in his back from getting rammed by a sharp board.

Out a lot farther there appeared to be a reef break that looked pretty big and fun (Kon Tiki), but was a bit too much for me. You can enter near the beach (long swim) or you can enter up the boardwalk a ways near where the rocks jut out into the water (good swimmers only, lots of rocks).

The shore break was pretty fun with the bodyboard. It's easy to eat sand though. Huge beach area with few rocks. Waves closed out pretty quick here though.

The second area is where I spent most of my time and had a blast. I was able to avoid getting hit by other people (had to bail and duck under the water a few times). Lots of competition for waves but I was able to catch my share.

Nice beach area to take a break on between sessions (though crowded in summer). Local shops/restaurants with fresh fish, cold drinks, ice cream, etc. Not sure how busy this area is during other parts of the year, but the city is settled by a good deal of permanent residents, so it's not a total ghost town.

I'd been here before, but on a small day. This time it was a good sized day but with a super short period. Looking out from the hotel in the morning it was all foam and quite a mess out there. No one surfing here on a summer morning is rare. Things calmed down a bit by the afternoon so I decided to give it a shot.

While walking down to the beach we saw a couple people carrying just the tips and ends of their broken boards. As I was putting on my fins and such there was one guy searching all over the beach for parts of his board. After 20m or so he finally found a piece.

On a bigger day like this there were some really nice shore breaks on both sides of the beach. The north is the common area which is good on small days, but on this big day the south side had some nice tubular waves, but they closed out a ton. It made for some really entertaining wipe outs. I saw a number of experienced surfers having a lot of problems paddling out because they had to duck dive every 5s!

I finally gave it 2 tries, but all I did was duck wave after wave, sometimes having to stay under for extended time due to 2 waves coming in together. I got the snot pounded out of me and finally cramped up before being able to get out past the break. You better be a hell of a strong swimming to come here on a day with 9-11s period.

When we arrived we saw guys coming out with broken boards. I got a big ding in mine this day too, as did two of my mates. The water was completely crowded and at one stage no one could get out through huge, pushing whitewash. On the back it was smooth and high walls.

Session: Crying

Well I wanted to cry.All I wanted to do today was surf.Walked on the beach and a guy running out with broken board.Great start.Got on back line surfed one out and could not get back out.It was a bummer.But sitting out on back line and watching Gods glory was great fun(and guys wipping ha ha)

Buddies:

Created: Monday March 5 2007 04:07:58 PM

Modified: Monday March 5 2007 04:07:58 PM

Hits: 1309

Session: yes, a good one!

The forecasting were good yesterday and I woke up early to catch some waves. The first surprise was that I was completely alone on the beach. The sets were solid so I hesitated to go to surf. It was a good decision: I get some rely good waves. a solid 1.5m, a little bumpy but very hollow and long.

Mid winter East Coast of the South Island of New Zealand. Cold gray morning with low dark clouds that promised rain or worse as we drove from Christchurch over the hills to Taylor's Mistake which is located between Whitewash Head and Penguin Point. Even the apple orchards by the side of the wet narrow country road looked bleak and devoid of color.

(The name is said to have been given when Captain Taylor of the US ship Vulga mistook the bay for the entrance to Lyttelton Harbour. Though more likely it was mistaken as the entrance to Sumner Bay. The Maori name is Te Onepoto, which probably refers to the short strip of sand beach with ground up shells.)

As we cleared a rise we could see the large rocky bay below. Wind was stiff cross-shore and lumpy shifting peaks rolled in from the South PolarOcean.By the time we hit the cold wet sand snow flurries stung our cheeks.Back in the day the only wet suit was a simple zip up bare arm vest so thus clad we paddled out by the northerly point. The water felt warm even thought it was a chilly 48F compared to the air, which with the wind chill factor was probably 28F!

Waiting for sets you jumped off your board and immersed your body up to your nose ... it was so cold that the old paraffin wax on our boards froze solid and became as slippery as blue ice.My buddy took off on a big peak hit the bottom, turned and started to walk when his feet slipped out from under him and he caught a nut cracker rail sandwich.As we helped him from the water we were all turning blue our hands and feet totally numb as we crunched through the now snow covered sand.Huddled close in the car and shivering uncontrollably even with the heater going full blast we drove back to town in what was now a full scale bloody blizzard!

Walked down the road from La Jolla Farms Road around 7ish with Fabi, noticed a decent amount of cars already there for the Sunday morning hangover session, I wasn't this time around, but usually all the UCSD, USD, SDSU kids show up later due to their inability to shake the Saturday night cobwebs. Usually a bonus for taking it easy and getting there early but not to be this time around. Must be tax season coming up or something, everybody's chillin'. Got to the bottom and the surf was only breaking at Middles with a decent crowd on it already and it looked small and weak to boot. Figured we'd paddle out just north of the pack to get wet since we'd allocated this time and put forth the effort to walk down the cliff. Well, glad we did, cuz the tide kept dropping and the residual windswell/ groundswell kept jacking up more and more. Actually had a surprising airdrop to speedy roundhouse wave right off the bat. Session continued to improve and I managed to get a lot of racy lefts, nothing big, but definitely fun shoulder high waves. The crowd kinda jumped from nothing to everybody and their mommas by 9'er and by then we had kinda made the most of the slightly inconsistent, dropping surf. One wave in particular made me realize it is still possible to get yer ass handed to you on small days like this one, especially at Blacks just cuz it throws so much. I air dropped super late into a head high wave, saw a guy paddling back out as I dropped in looking at me in amusement, actually pulled the drop only to get clipped by the lip trying to race around the section. Basically, I got thrown like a lawn dart full on yard sale style about 5 feet out in front of the wave, head dipped, board tryed to hit me mid flight, got rolled three times under water, wave tryed to push me into my board again under water, and then I came up fully realizing how bad I just got worked but actually felt revived and ready for more. Must have been the cold water submersion or something. Anyways, great sesh despite all the kooks and wannabees cluttering the line-up like buoys. Seriously, out of the 100 people that were out by the end, only about 20 of them were actually catching waves consistently. Can you say "bouys"........

After starting out on Makaha it was much easier for me to catch waves here at La Pampilla. They were a bit bigger and there were more of them. It's less crowded too. But still plenty of people out in the waves.

The rocks here are much smaller (but still rounded) than Makaha. So I had some problems with them getting into my fins and causing some nasty bruises on the bottoms of my feet. It's also a decent swim out to the waves (for a beginner/intermediate), but nothing too tough. You can swim out in the middle where the water heads back out to the sea. Then the waves are on the sides near the rocky points.

I had a blast here and didn't want to stop. My fins were rubbing me a bit though. When I finally did stop and get out of the water I found that my fins had rubbed all the skin off of my inner ankles (size of a nuevo sol). I bought some fin socks after that adventure ;)

Session:

Whooo... I was waiting for this wave since several years as I am not living in Normandie. And here it is! I was coming back here just for few days. Good surprise: in middle of nowhere, in a land of powerless waves, this wave is a serious reefbreak ! Hollow and fast, on big days it's better for bodyboarders than surfers. If you take-off, then it's a long fun wall. As the landscape is incredible, it will be a good memories.

A pretty windy day on the North Devon coast but shelter found close to the cliffs at Putts. Conditions were pretty big but nothing really to write home about. A welcome break from the usual crowded line up provided me with a very enjoyable session.

Surfed South peak with Marc all to ourselves with about 12 other people clustered @ Middles. Although slightly less consistent where we were sitting, it paid off once the tide started filling in off the dead low of 0.49 from 5:38 a.m. I definitely scored some racetrack lefts perfect for cutties and whack-em's before the tide and "Dudediego" filed into the lineup come 7ish. Marc had a few fun rights I belive as well. All in all, a fun session!

Buddies:

Created: Thursday February 22 2007 11:42:26 PM

Modified: Thursday February 22 2007 11:42:26 PM

Hits: 2828

Session:

Bud Bud was big and not tender... with a very high tide coefficient, the waves were irregular and not as hollow as usual. take off was critical and the shoulder looked biiiiiiig from the inside but it was hard to catch. and with cold water, which means numb body, i only managed to ride a few waves, i couldn't get a move done with the MS5.

First and only session at Gas Chambers. I was told this place doesn't break consistantly and I'm not sure because it was good the only time I went there. The only problems are the rude Puerto Rican body boarders. They display no courtesy or etiquitte in the lineup. They will take off on you and purposly cause the wave to section off if possible. I'm sure they'll be happy to hear this, but I probably won't be going back because of the spongers rudeness in the lineup.